The bark is stripped off and used as cork.

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[–] 9 points 10 months ago*

Same! Digging into this wiki says (with source):

Typically, once it reaches 25 years old, its thick bark can be harvested for cork every 9 to 12 years without causing harm to the tree.[4]

The source is a Rainforest Alliance article from 2024: https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/species/cork-oak/

Cork oak is unique in its ability to regenerate its outer bark. After a tree reaches 25 years of age, it can be stripped of its cork once every 9 to 12 years without causing damage to the tree. A single cork oak, which lives up to 200 years, can be harvested over 16 times.

Cool thing I learned: harvested cork oak stores 5x as much carbon as unharvested. Get that cork!

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